Knitting machine



March 19, 1940. T, JACKSON r AL 2,193,872

KNITTING MACHINE Filed Aug. 6, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 March 19, 1940. T. JACKSON a'rm. 2,193,872

KNITTING MACHINE Filed Aug. 6, 19:57 I 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 F/GZ a TTACKSON K UPHILL )NVENTORS Patented Mar. 19, 1940 UNITED STATES KNITTING MACHINE Thomas Jackson and Kenneth Merson Uphill, Spondon, near Derby, England, assignors {to Celanese Corporation of America, a corporation of Delaware Application August 6, 1937, Serial No. 157,658 In Great Britain August 12, 1936 8 Claims.

This invention relates to knitting machines and is particularly concerned with an improvement in the patterning mechanism employed on multi-feeder circular knitting machines.

In multi-feeder circular knitting machines patterning means may be provided in the form of a plurality of units, usually one for each feeder, although a unit may be removed or omitted from any given feeder when it is desired that no pattern selection should be made at that feeder. The pattern units move relatively to the needles with the knitting cams so that immediately before a group of knitting cams act on the needles 2. selection is made by the patterning mechanism which acts on elements associated with selected needles, e. g. either directly on butts on the needles, or indirectly on needle jacks associated with the needles. and puts them into or out of the range of action of the knitting cams. After the group of knitting cams has passed, the selected needles are restored to a normal position, ready for a fresh selection to be made. In the production of certain kinds of fabrics, it is sometimes necessary that two or more successive pattern units should make an identical selection of the needles. This may occur, for example, in the production of tuck-stitch fabrics in which a given selection of needles may be put out of action two, three or more times in succession so as to make tuck stitches of a length extending over two, three or more courses of the fabric. It is an object of the present invention to provide means whereby in such circumstances the patterning mechanism may be simplified. and its cost and the mechanical troubles that might arise from it may be reduced.

According to the present invention. a multifeeder circular knitting machine adapted for the selection and differential actuation of the needles at the feeders of the machine for knitting patterned fabrics in which the same selection is required at a plurality of successive feeders comprises means at at least one feeder for selecting elements associated with the needles, means for separating the unselected elements from the selected elements and maintaining such separation over the remainder of said successive feeders. and means for associating said selected and unselected elements after said successive feeders preparatory to further selection. A convenient means for the purpose of the invention is a cam, adapted to act at the first feeder on the butts of the needles that are not to be acted on by the knitting cams or on other elements, such as needle jacks, associated with such needles. and to take and hold them out of the range of action of the knitting cams for the subsequent feeders, returning them at the desired time to a position where they will be subjected along with the other needle butts or like elements to a further selection By the means according to the present invention only one pattern unit is required to make a given selection and repeat it instead of two, three or more pattern units, one for making the selection and one, two or more for repeating it. Consequently the cost of providing the necessary pattern units and the trouble of changing the pattern when desired are greatly reduced, and the whole mechanism is simplified, whereby mechanical troubles are minimised.

It will be understood that the initial selection made by the pattern unit may be regarded either as a selection of the needles to be acted on by the knitting cams. or as a selection of the needles not to be so acted upon. Hereafter, however, the needles to be acted upon by the knitting cams in consequenceof a selection will be referred to as the selected needles.

The means according to the invention may be employed in any machine in which two or more successive pattern units are required to make the same selection of the needles. Thus, for example, in a four-feeder machine producing tucked fabric in which an identical selection is made at three successive feeds while at the fourth feed no selection is made, a single pattern unit may be provided at one feed and a cam according to the present invention may be provided which holds the needles not selected by said pattern unit out of position for two further feeds. Or again, in a six-feeder machine in which at two diametrically opposite feeds no selection is made and in the two feeds of each of the remaining pairs an identical selection is made at both feeds there may be employed two pattern units, and two cams for the purpose of the present invention. said cams being adapted to hold the unsclected needles out of position during one further feed.

The invention will now be described in greater detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. in which .Fig. 1 is a. diagrammatic plan view of a 4-.

feeder circular rib knitting machine provided with means according to the invention;

Fig. 2 is a development of the cylinder needles and the cam system therefor as viewed from outside the cylinder in the machine shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a detail view of Fig. 2 from inside the cylinder;

Fig. 4 shows an assembly of the needle, needle jack, and pattern jack, modified for the purpose of the present invention; and

Fig. 5 shows an assembly similar to that shown in Fig. 4 but unmodified.

As is shown in Figs. 1 and 2 the machine comprises a needle cylinder l with cylinder needles 2 carried thereby and a needle dial 3 with dial' needles 4 carried thereby. The cylinder needles are actuated by needle jacks 5 (Fig. 4, righthand side) which in turn are actuated by knitting cams 6 acting upon butts 1 and 8 on the needle jacks or alternatively the needles may be operated by butts 8 on the needles 2, which butts are actuated by a system of needle cams III. The cylinder I and dial 3 in this machine are driven round in the direction indicated by the arrows, and the cams 6 and I0, and also the dial needle cams 30 are held stationary. Throughout the operation the dial needles 4 actuated by the dial cams 30 knit regularly and without selection.

The cylinder needles 2 are selected at three of the four feeds, which four feeds are marked in Fig. 2 as II, I2, I3, I4. The selection of the needles is effective at feeds I2, I3 and I4, being made at the feed I2 and maintained throughout the feeds I3 and I4.

The selection is made at the feed I2 by means of a pattern drum I5 from which project a number of pattern pieces I6 disposed in tricks parallel to the axis of the drum I5. Each of the pattern pieces I6 has a number of bits along its length, some of which are broken out and some, shown at IT, allowed to remain, whereby the pattern piece makes a selection. Each trick, and the pattern piece projecting therefrom, make a selection for one rotation of the machine, the drum I5 being racked round by one trick at the end of each rotation so that at the next rotation a fresh selection is made. The selection is made through levers I8 mounted on a vertical axis I9 carried by a bracket 20 on the base plate 2I of the machine. The levers I 8 being mounted on a vertical axis are free to swing in a horizontal plane and are acted upon by the bits II in the pattern pieces I6 or, where such bits are broken away, are not acted upon. The levers I8 act in turn upon butts 22 provided on pattern jacks 23, one of which is associated with each of the needle jacks 5. The.

assembly of needle, needle jack and pattern jack is shown on the right-hand side in Fig. 4. The butts 22 on the pattern jacks 23 are disposed at different heights in the needle cylinder as is shown in Fig. 2 and a pattern jack, together with the corresponding needle jack 5- and needle 2, is selected when the lever I8 lying at the same height as the butt 22 on the pattern jack 23 is not acted upon because the corresponding bit I! in the pattern piece IS in the drum I5 has been broken out. When a pattern jack 23 is not selected it is pressed inwards by the corresponding lever I8 towards the axis of the needle cylinder and, in consequence, presses the needle jack 5 inwards. The needle jack 5 is provided with a butt I or 8 at its lower end, which butt is normally acted upon by a cam 24 that raises the needles 2 through the medium of the needle jacks 5. When the needle jack 5 is pressed inwards, however, the butt I is moved out of range of the said cam 24 and merely passes over its inner face. This is shown more clearly in Fig. 3 which is a view from inside the needle cylinder, the view of Fig. 2 being from outside the needle cylinder. In each of these figures 8 has been used for a selected butt, and I for an unselected butt.

In consequence of being pressed in, the butts I and the corresponding needles 2 are not raised into the range of the cams 24, 25 and the needles 2 are consequently not acted upon by said cams. At the three feeds I2, I3, I4 the cam 24 at feed I2 and corresponding cams 25 at feeds I3 and I4 act upon the selected jack butts 8 and raise the needles 2, not to a knitting position but merely so that they take thread and tuck. That is to say,

the needles are not raised so far that their latches are cleared from the old loops carried by the needles, but they are raised high enough for thread to be fed beneath their books. The needle cams ID at these three feeds merely act to draw down the needles at the points marked 26 and at the same time draw down the needle jacks by acting upon butts 21 on the jacks lying immediately beneath and acted on by the needles.

After the needle jacks I have passed the cam 24 that raises the selected needles into tucking position at feeder I2, the unselected jack butts I encounter a further cam 28, the cam according to the present invention. The selected needle jacks have been raised by the cam 24 not only to cause their needles to tuck, but also so that the butts 8 of the selected needle jacks come out of range of this further cam 28, while the butts I of the non-selected needle lacks remain within range of the cam 28 and are engaged by it and drawn down. In order to allow the butts I to be drawn down, needle jacks are employed, which, as shown on the right-hand side of Fig. 4,'are free to descend behind the pattern jacks 23, the use of needle jacks having a stop-butt, as shown at 29 on the left-hand side of Fig. 4 being avoided. The three elements, that is the needle, the needle jack and the pattern jack, are all disposed in the same trick in the needle cylinder and the pattern jacks 23 are held longitudinally stationary by means of a long helical spring extending round the needle cylinder and fitting in a groove formed by notches 33 in the successive pattern jacks as is usual with longitudinal stationary elements fitted in the tricks of a needle cylinder.

After having drawn the unselected butts down, the cam 28 maintains them in the down position throughout the feeds l3 and I4 during which time the selected needles are caused by the further cams 25 to take the thread twice more and to tuck each time. During the whole of this time the dial needles are knitting the thread at each feed under the influence of the dial needle cams 30. After feed I4 the butts I of the unselected needle jacks are acted upon by a further cam 3| which raises the butts "I into horizontal alignment with the butts 8 of the selected needle jacks. At this feed also the needle cams I act to raise all the needles 2 by acting on the needle butts 9 at the point 32, and the height to which the needles are raised at the point 32 is such that all the needles clear their old loops and knit fresh thread on being drawn down again at the point 26 in feed II. In the meantime the pattern drum I is racked round one trick so that when the .needles come again to feed I2 a new selection begins and the process is repeated.

If it is desired the cams 24, 25 may be such that instead of causing the selected needles 2 to tuck they may cause them to knit, by raising them a little higher or alternatively they may be such as to cause the needles to tuck at some feeds and knit at other feeds. In any case, however, so long as the selection made at feeds I3 and I4 is identical with that made at feed I2 and cam 28 according to the present invention enables such selection to be maintained throughout the feeds I3 and I4 and obviates the necessity of a second and third pattern drum such as the drum I5 at these two further feeds.

Having described our invention, what we desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A multi-feeder circular knitting machine adapted for the selection and differential actuation of the needles at the feeders of the machine for knitting patterned tuck-stitch fabrics, said machine comprising means at at least one feeder for selecting elements associated with the needles, means for separating the unselected elements from the selected elements and maintaining such separation over a plurality of successive feeders, means at at least one of said successive feeders for actuating said selected needles to make tuck stitches while said unselected needles are inactive throughout said successive feeders, means for associating said elements after said successive feeders for further selection, and means for actuating all the needles to knit at a further feeder.

2. A multi-feeder circular knitting machine having dial needles and cylinder needles and adapted for the selection and differential actuation of the needles at the feeders of the machine for knitting ribbed patterned tuck-stitch fabrics, said machine comprising means at at least one feeder for selecting cylinder needles to make tuck stitches, means for separating the actuating elements of the unselected needles from the actuating elements of the selected needles and for maintaining such separation over a plurality of successive feeders, means for actuating said selected needles to make tuck stitches at at least one of said successive feeders while said unselected needles are maintained inactive throughout said successive feeders, means for associating said elements after said successive feeders for further selections, and means for actuating all the needles to knit at a further feeder.

3. A four-feeder circular knitting machine having dial needles and cylinder needles-and adapted for the selection and differential actuation of the cylinder needles at the feeders of the machine for knitting ribbed patterned tuck-stitch fabrics, said machine comprising means at one feeder for selecting cylinder needles to make tuck stitches, means for separating the actuating elements of the unselected needles from the actuating elements of the selected needles and for maintaining such separation over three successive feeders, means for actuating said selected needles to make tuck stitches at each of said three successive feeders while said unselected needles are maintained inactive, means for associating said actuating elements and means at the .fourth feeder for causing all the needles to knit.

4. A multi-feeder circular knitting machine adapted for the selection and differential actuation of the needles at' the feeders of the machine for knitting patterned fabrics in which the same selection is required at a plurality of successive feeders, said machine comprising jacks for actuating the needles, means at at least one feeder for selecting the actuating jacks of needles, a cam for drawing down the unselected jacks below the level of the selected jacks and for maintaining said unselected jacks below that level over the remainder of said successive feeders, and means for associating said selected and unselected jacks after said successive feeders preparatory to further selection.

5. A multi-feeder circular knitting machine adapted for the selection and differential actuation of the needles at the feeders of the machine for knitting patterned fabrics in which the same selection is required at a pluralityof successive feeders, said machine comprising jacks for actuating the needles, means at at least one feeder for selecting the actuating jacks of needles, acam for drawing down the unselected jacks below the level of the selected jacks and for maintaining said unselected jacks below that level over the remainder of said successive feeders and a cam for raising said unselected jacks to the level of said selected jacks after said successive feeders preparatory to further selection.

6. A multi-feeder circular circular knitting machine having cylinder needles and dial needles and adapted for the selection and differential actuation of said cylinder needles at the feeders of the machine for knitting ribbed patterned tuck-stitch fabrics, said machine comprising jacks for actuating the needles, means at at least one feeder for selecting the jacks of needles to make tuck stitches,-cam means for drawing down the unselected jacks and maintaining them inactive below the level of the selected jacks over a plurality of successive feeders, cam. means at each of said successive feeders adapted to act on said selected jacks, and, at one at least of said successive feeders to cause the needles associated therewith to make tuck stitches, cam means at the next feeder after said successive feeders adapted to raise said unselected jacks to the level of said selected jacks, and means at that feeder to actuate all the needles to knit.

7. A four-feeder circular knitting machine having cylinder needles and dial needles and adapted for the selection and differential actuation of said cylinder needles at the feeders of the machine forv knitting ribbed patterned tuckstitch fabrics, said machine comprising jacks for actuating the needles, means at one feeder for selecting the jacks of needles to make tuck: stitches, cam means at said feeder for drawing down the unselected jacks and maintaining them inactive below the level of the selected jacks over three successive feeders, cam means at each of said three feeders to act on said selected jacks and cause the needles associated therewith to make tuck stitches, cam means at the fourth feeder adapted to raise said unselected jacks to the level of said selected jacks, and means at that feeder to actuate all the needles to knit.

8. A multl-feeder circular knitting machine adapted for the selection and diflerential actuation of the needles at the feeders of the machine for knitting patterned fabrics in which the same selection is required at a plurality of successive feeders, said machine comprising pattern jacks associated with but separate from the needles and longitudinally fixed with reference to each other, selecting means at at least one feeder adapted to act through selected pattern jacks upon seat at least one. of the successlve'feeders and means for causing all the needles to knit at a further feeder whereby a tuck stitch fabric is produced.

THOMAS JACKSON. KENNETH MERSON UPEIILL. 

